New Danville partnership brings area business success

A wrangler works on painting a hand-made crate at the New Danville community in Willis for Simply Texas based in Old Town Spring.

A wrangler works on painting a hand-made crate at the New Danville community in Willis for Simply Texas based in Old Town Spring.

Photo: Staff Photo By Eric Swist

Photo: Staff Photo By Eric Swist

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A wrangler works on painting a hand-made crate at the New Danville community in Willis for Simply Texas based in Old Town Spring.

A wrangler works on painting a hand-made crate at the New Danville community in Willis for Simply Texas based in Old Town Spring.

Photo: Staff Photo By Eric Swist

New Danville partnership brings area business success

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Matthew Potter says he has the best of both worlds. Through a partnership with Willis-based New Danville, he markets his store’s homemade product in beautifully crafted crates made locally by a group of talented wood workers.

This year marks the first full season for Potter’s company, Spring-based Simply Texas, to showcase the store’s wide selection of salsas, jellies and sauces in the crates.

“It has really worked out well,” he said of the partnership. “It has been such a rewarding opportunity for me.”

Simply Texas originally began as Dave’s Pepper Palace in 1996, the brainchild of the late Dave Clancy. When Clancy passed away in 2004, Potter and his father Jay purchased the company and eventually changed the name to Simply Texas to reflect the company’s wide variety of products.

About five years ago, Potter said the company expanded into more gourmet gift items and more recently decided they needed a quality packaging to represent the quality product. Potter learned of New Danville and the beautiful pens the adults at the ranch made and soon contacted Kathy Sanders.

New Danville, founded by Sanders, is a nonprofit community where intellectually and developmentally disabled men and women can learn and work and be with their friends, both disabled and non-disabled, while providing a safe and caring environment encouraging independence.

“We were interested in working with them to make crates,” he said. “New Danville is a great community that is serving an under-served segment of our community.”

Sanders said the wood shop is part of New Danville’s adult education and training center.

“It takes a lot of talent and patience (for wood working),” she said. “But as a nonprofit, we didn’t have a real outlet for our products.”

Sanders said after meeting with Potter, Simply Texas’ need for crates was a good fit for New Danville’s wood shop.

“They are making something that is useful and beautiful,” she said. “They are so proud to be in a partnership with Simply Texas and the relationship has grown.”

Called “wranglers”, Sanders said their self-esteem has gone up and they are happy to be contributing to the community and have their work showcased at a local business.

“They love what they do,” she said. “We hope this is a very long term relationship.”

She said the partnership with Simply Texas is a first for the New Danville, but Sanders added she hopes to form more in the future. In fact, Sanders added in the future, she hoped to open a small retail location at New Danville where the items made by the wranglers for Simply Texas and other area business can be sold and help generate funds to support the community’s programs.

“That would be an ideal situation,” she said.

Since the partnership with Simply Texas, the wranglers were able to branch out and make other items including bird houses, trellises and other boxes and crates.

“I think (the partnership) helps us give back to the community and helps them generate money (for their programs),” Potter said. “It benefits us all.”